Moosefest Pregame Fun by Will Richardson | Sep 16, 2005 | Heros, Whitewater | 0 comments October 16, 2005 What a great few days! I’ve been traveling with the one and only Corey Volt. We started the long drive from Rock Island Wednesday at around noon o’clock, after frantically packing up the Jackson Kayak Duelly F–350 and enjoying our last great coffee for a week. 10 1/2 hours later we were in Chambersburg, enjoying WiFi in the hotel room and some incredible mullet-sightings in the morning. We met up with our friend Jeremy Laucks on the way north and headed straight to Fish Creek in NY. None of us had run it, but all had heard that it’s one of the best play runs in the east. Fish Creek had miles of sweet wave trains, fun holes, and a few strainers to dodge. The real highlight of the trip was that we put-on very late in the day, so that we arrived at the take-out in the dark. We found this INCREDIBLE wave right at the take-out with an eddy. It would rival the NR Dries wave #1 at 25,000! Unfortunately it was really dark, so we couldn’t really watch each other’s rides or see our take-offs as we surfed. Sorry, no pics…too dark. Friday we woke-up and headed back to the Fish Creek take-out wave, expecting more fun, joined by Canadian Jen. The level had risen to 4′ on the gauge, which caused the wave to be washed-out–did I mention that it had been raining TONS here in NY and every little drainage ditch is a runnable river? After a lot of crying and shaking our fists at the river, we decided to head towards Old Forge and do some creeking. We set our sights on the Independence, and sent Jen up to shoot photos of the sick slide about 1/2 mile upstream. Corey, Jeremy, and I then headed up to the put-in based on the directions we got from a nice local in Lyon’s Falls. We put-on and started running some fun class 4+ slides and bogey water, becoming increasingly suspicious that we might be on the wrong creek. We arrived at a dam about 1/2 way down the run, which was PUMPING and made a sick drop that only Jeremy ran. When we got to the road, our suspicions were confirmed: We had run Otter Creek and had to walk our boats about a mile down the road to our trucks at the Independence! I scrambled-up and to get Jen, then we ran shuttle for Corey and Jeremy to run the Indy. Jen and I had to book-it to Old Forge to set-up the JK Party at Malloys. Malloys is a very cool bar and restaurant where I stood-up some boats, set-up a table with free schwag, and waited for the party to begin. Nick’s the owner, and Max was our bartender who was extremely busy all night! LOTS of people showed-up for free beer and fun. We did a contest for a free T-Shirt: people had to try to throw a JK Frisbee across the bar into the cockpit of a Super Hero. We gave-out lots of frisbees, hats, stickers, and bottle openers. I met a lot of really cool boaters and locals, many of whom owned Jackson boats and were extremely friendly. After the free beer was over, Jen and I headed out and stopped by the Pyrhana party, run by OKS staff Matt Hamilton. We’re all on our way to Watertown this morning for some big wave action at Inner City Strife, then to the festival tonight. More tomorrow, enjoy the pics! Live from NY, Stephen Wright TShirt Winner! Partiers Max at work Malloys JK party Jessica Frisbee Jen and Corey Jackson Girl Submit a Comment Cancel replyYour email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Email * Website Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ